Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Random Squirrels

(okay, so they're chipmunks, but--)

We're having a dinner party tonight. We're not serving squirrels. But yesterday when I went to Albertson's I talked with Robert, my favorite checker at Albertson's. He has Tourette's Syndrome and his meds don't work very well. He quacks a lot, mid sentence. He's very friendly and seems smart, though he has some odd ideas.

I said "How come nuts have gotten so expensive?" The small bag of walnut pieces I bought cost almost $5.00 and I'd noticed pistachios were climbing the price ladder too.

He said, "It's because all these people are feeding rodents, especially squirrels. They're feeding so many nuts to the squirrels that there aren't enough to go around for the rest of us."

I pondered that. Blog pal Namowal may be at the heart of this problem, because she's been known to feed squirrels. And wrecked it for the rest of us.

One time Robert told me the rawhide bone I was buying for my dog was probably made of dog, because it was from Vietnam. He's got opinions on everything, QUACK!

8 comments:

Uh oh...!It's true that I had planned to feed them walnuts, but I couldn't find any with shells and wasn't about to pay for the unshelled ones. Instead I wait until unsalted peanuts go on sale and stock up.

Robert sounds interesting. I'm glad he has a job and people understand why he is the way he is. A few generations ago people would have misinterpreted his behavior and assumed he was crazy.

Namo, I agree, it's nice that Albertson's is comfortable hiring Robert and putting him in a checker position with his uncontrollable speech and tics. A lot of places would put him in the back room. And customers really like Robert.

Albertson's seems not to mind hiring people with mental problems. Or maybe they're a job perk.

I see chipmunks occasionaly, but they are so shy and quick I never get a good look at them. I've seen a ton of Squirrels, they aren't quit as shy if their hungry. Either way I don't wan't to wrestle either one.